Only Four? Bathurst April 21

“Nuh, I’m not going and neither is Brian!!”

“Yeah but Nige!” whined Lucky, “That only leaves four of us for the ride.”

“Yeah! nuh! wrong!. The ride is cancelled! There will be no ride. I repeat…. no ride!!”

So four of us met at Jerry’s on the first week of the school holidays for the ride. Fairy Dust now called Dusty because the other name was totally unsuitable for a hard core man, Lucky, Boris and Rocky. It was raining heavily that day but lightened up till we got to Broke. Then it thundered down upon us. We waited twenty minute or so then Ride Leader Lucky or RL as he became affectionately known (Not out loud by anyone) led out to Denman. Given the conditions the ride was still quick enough and interesting. Dusty and Lucky chatted away happily right up to the Royal Hotel in Denman for lunch.

On arrival Boris had to admit that his wet weather gear was much better at holding the water on the inside than actually stopping it from getting there. His BMW Costalot boots were also filled to the brim. Rocky was in similar conditions plus his BMW Priceyas bag was now a travelling aquarium. “This happened last time as I recall” he noted. “Might pen a letter of complaint to Herr Lostthewar or whoever and register a stern complaint from her majesty’s servant” He hasn’t done that yet.

Lunch was good with Boris inhaling his usual rare steak and Lucky doing the same. The other two ate healthy like, you know, Salmon or mung beans or something. I don’t recall.

Leaving Denman, disaster!!! Wait, that should be in upper case to highlight what a disaster this was…DISASTER!!!!!. A small drop of water had somehow found it’s way between the microphone hole and cover of Lucky’s intercom which meant Dusty could not hear Lucky’s witty commentary or extracts from his novel-in-progress Phil Witton’s Collective Thoughts on Everything. Lucky could hear Dusty of course and had two hours of him describing every corner. “Right knee out, push down on bar, gentle pressure on tank, easy, easy, Oh well done sirrah!!” every corner plus coughs and sneezes and grunt and groans over the bumpy bits.” Of course it never occurred to Lucky to just switch over to music and, besides, it became quite soothing after a while. Every now and then Dusty would make a suggestion or observation which Lucky could reply with a hand signal so that was ok. We rode in and out of heavy rain and then we were in Bathurst. RL Lucky found The Knickerbocker first go and was totally proud of his accomplishment. “That’s why they call me RL said Lucky to nobody listening.

Dinner was at the Irish pub and Lucky shouted hoping they would all order soup. They didn’t. Dusty had a Beef and Burgundy Pie which he said could captain the “Mighty Eels” and told everyone that that is all they’re allowed to order next visit. No arguments from us.

Breakfast was good. Still no Eva who has retired and not died of anything at all as we were led to believe. The cook actually made some pretty decent poached eggs so we hailed him a hero.

The ride home was much nicer with clear skies most of the way to the coast. Some trouble from a black Hyundai SUV out near Sofala which was driving erratically and tailgating Boris. RL wisely pulled the group over to let this idiot go but then he just stayed a hundred metres ahead of us anyway so we didn’t really get the point of his fussing about. Usual coffees at Jerrys and off we all went. On a happy note, Boris’ new red Triumph Tiger 900 went like a bought one.